Peninsula Open Space Trust announces big acquisition in Pescadero

PESCADERO -- More than 900 acres of picturesque coastal hills and farmland will be preserved from possible development into luxury homes under a major acquisition announced this week by the Peninsula Open Space Trust.

The trust paid $9.96 million for the land, known as Butano Farms, which has been used for ranching as well as vegetable and flower production for the past century. The northern end of the property frames tiny downtown Pescadero, whose rustic environs are increasingly desirable to Silicon Valley multimillionaires who want to own a seaside retreat.

The land will be incorporated into Cloverdale Coastal Ranches, a 5,800-acre property just to the south also owned by the trust. The purchase creates an open space corridor -- and may one day allow for a public trail -- that stretches roughly 10 miles from Pescadero State Beach to Año Nuevo State Reserve.

Walter Moore, president of the trust, said Butano Farms is one of POST's most significant purchases of the past 10 years. The deal, he said, accomplishes several things.

In addition to vast slopes for cattle grazing and 53 acres of prime agricultural soil, Butano Farms features a unique 140-acre willow marsh, a dense tangle of woods surrounding a 1.6-mile portion of Butano Creek that serves as habitat for threatened steelhead and waterfowl. The trust plans to protect this area while allowing agriculture to continue elsewhere on the property.

The trust purchased the land Dec. 12 from the Dias family, whose patriarch, John Dias Sr., came to the United States as a child in 1885 from the Azores Islands. The remaining members of the family sold to the trust rather than seek more money on the open market.

The land would have been highly attractive for development, according to the trust, because San Mateo County regulations would have permitted the construction of as many as 10 homes. The property's interior hilltops yield sweeping ocean views but cannot be seen from roads below, a rare combination of expansiveness and privacy that would have been irresistible to luxury home seekers.

"You'd be amazed at the views up there," Bill Ray, a Dias family heir, said in a statement. "They're incredible."

Those vistas will now be incorporated into a massive, and growing, belt of protected open space along the southern San Mateo County coast, just 25 to 30 miles by car from the economic powerhouse of Silicon Valley.

"It really demonstrates why this is such an extraordinary place to live," Moore said. "The balance and harmony between those settings is what we're trying to keep vibrant."